CHURCH TECH
FILO ’ S TODD ELLIOTT | Bruce Adolph
From the first moment I heard about FILO I was hooked . Actually , I watched a parody song video lamenting tech team issues and they captured my heart right then and there .
When I dug deeper to discover their mission , I knew I had to let our [ WM ] readers know more about them . We have been featuring some of founder Todd Elliott ’ s writings in the last few issues of Worship Musician .
FILO stands for First In Last Out and as you may have guessed , their mission is to assist technical artists who serve the local church . Let ’ s dive right in here ( without a line-check even ) and get to know Todd Elliott and FILO better .
[ WM ] I mention the word “ mission ” in my intro . Tell us about FILO ’ s special mission ?
[ Todd Elliott ] Our mission was really born out of my own experiences as a tech person in the local church . I often felt misunderstood by the people at my church , which meant I felt alone . I needed a place where I could be inspired to keep going and to feel understood . And then along the way , having a community of people that I could reach out to for questions on the more practical side of technology . How are you doing “ xyz ?” So , FILO ’ s mission is to provide this for those serving in the technical arts of the local church … community , skill development and inspiration . As all this is happening , our goal is that each technical artist becomes more effective so that their churches can become their most effective .
[ WM ] FILO is a combination of the FILO Conference , FILO Blog , FILO Podcast , and personalized FILO Coaching . Let ’ s talk a little about the FILO Conference to begin with .
You started the FILO conference doing small regional events in 2015 , then moved to the Yellow Box Church in Naperville , IL for two years and then moved to Willow Creek in 2018 . Whenever you produce a conference for churches you have to realize that you have a few different sets of people to serve . Some of your attendees are from small churches , some are medium sized , and some of the larger churches have more people in their worship and tech teams alone than the entire Sunday attendance of the small churches . To top that , your tech team attendees are a mix of volunteers and paid staffers … which is a different dynamic as well . What is FILO ’ s approach to these scenarios ?
[ Todd ] Right off the bat , our primary target is the technical artist in the local church . There are quite a few conferences for all the other areas of ministry , but none that really target the tech person primarily . Nobody really gets the “ FILO life ” except for the people living it . We want the teams coming to the FILO Conference to feel seen and understood , so everything we do is with them in mind . The differences in church size , budget , team , etc , are vast , but there are many commonalities that we do share . Our goal is to lean into those similarities , and then to teach principles that can apply to every situation .